One of the biggest issues with the health care system in the United States is that it is good at fixing health problems, but not so good at helping people avoid them in the first place.

The folks at St. Luke's University Hospital-Anderson Campus have a common sense answer for that.

The Anderson campus has lots of land around it, land that was once prime farmland. So, in a back-to-the-future move, the team is going back into the field.

The hospital is using a 20,000-square-foot piece of land to open a community garden for employees, it says in a news release. There, they'll grow vegetables to increase awareness about the importance of healthy eating and develop gardening skills.

Representatives from Burpee, the seed company, joined the St. Luke's gardeners earlier this month to provide seeds and tips on gardening, it said. They offered advice on how to grow healthy plants from seeds, the best time for planting crops for this region and what nutrients those plants provide when consumed. That's the new and experienced gardeners at some of the 20 plots behind the Anderson campus to the right.

Pesticides are restricted, as is the planting of shrubs and tress, the news release said.

Of course, there's an app for that, and Burpee introduced its Garden Time app that gives information on sowing, trasplanting and harvesting vegetables and herbs. The app provides gardeners with access to a database on plants, local weather and links to how-to gardening videos, it said.

The community garden developed from an internal committee looking to initiate wellness programs for employees, patients and visitors.

At the end of the growing season, St. Luke's plans to hold -- what else? -- a garden party.

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ABOUT THE WRITERS

TIM DARRAGH has been reporting and editing the news for 30 years, most of it at The Morning Call. For much of that time, he's been doing award-winning investigative and in-depth reporting projects. Tim created the three-year-long Change of Heart project, and wrote a series on the state's fractured food inspection system that led to widespread improvements in food safety. Meantime, that novice jogger you see plodding along the streets around Bethlehem Township? That would be Tim.